Jersey Shore Shark Attack is like the Reese's peanut butter cup of horror flicks. It takes two pop culture things, in this case the Guidos and Guidettes from the inexplicitly popular "Jersey Shore" and the always deadly sharks who are given an annual week-long celebration by Discovery Channel, and jams them together hoping for the best. It's definitely an amusing concept and I wasn't expecting a lot from it simply because this is yet another lowbrow, low-budget SyFy entry that opens up with the expected terrible CG sharks we've come to expect. Which is why I have to admit that I was generally entertained by the complete silliness on display that benefits from abundant spraying blood, a completely tongue-in-cheek tone, and what is possibly the greatest film appearance former boy band member Joey Fatone will ever make (it's the best moment here, trust me). Sure, it does eventually wear a little thin, but this could have been much worse.

It's July 4th weekend in the Jersey suburb Seaside Heights and it promises to be a few days of partying, fireworks, and alcohol. Or, as our dunderheaded locals would say, there's going to be lots of "A.S.S." (alcohol, sunshine, and sex!). All of these plans, however, are sure to fall by the wayside when the vibration caused by some nearby oil drilling attracts a rare and vicious breed of sharks to 'da shore!

As mentioned, there's some bad CG right away and they've even seen fit to totally rip-off Piranha early on by having a horny couple sneak into the drilling area for a swim and getting chewed up by our sharks. But then, bro, it becomes all about the goofy comedy as we meet our none-too-bright main characters as "The Complication" (Jeremy Luke) and his pals have to contend with not only his pissy girlfriend "Nooki" (Melissa Molinaro) and the other local girls but also the rich preppies who hate their guts as well as our toothy creatures. This gives the makers the chance to trot out a whole lot of purposely campy dialogue, an awesome scene where a slob fisherman gets his hand chewed off, our Guido's using protein bars and fireworks as weapons, the aforementioned Fatone (who plays himself and is at Seaside to put on a concert - be still my beating heart!) scene that had me cheering at the screen, and various people being killed before our unlikely heroes try to save the shore - all while the script by Michael Ciminera and Richard Gnolfo nails the stereotypes perfectly and is helped out immensely by the fact our cast is completely in on the joke and the always reliable B-movie maven Fred Olen Ray is one of the producers.

As with most SyFy efforts this does have the required recognizable faces in bit parts as Jack Scalia (Fear City), William Atherton (Die Hard), and Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) all make appearances but they're upstaged by the younger cast members who seem to be having a blast making fun of their real-life "Jersey Shore" counterparts. Luke's dumbass douche still manages to be likeable and Molinaro completely nails it with her imitation of "Snooki" but the flick truly belongs to Daniel Booko playing the non-Italian Guido wannabe Balzac who spends the entire movie doing an extravagant (and awesome) duck face and taking time out to constantly straighten his hair. He's just a lot of fun.

Your enjoyment of Jersey Shore Shark Attack probably depends on a few things. If your tolerance of the seemingly endless string of SyFy shark flicks such as the ridiculous 2-Headed Shark Attack and cult phenomena that is Sharknado is low, this might not work for you. If you can't ignore the admittedly lousy CG effects and just enjoy the dopey comedy and tone, you might want to look elsewhere. However, if you can sit down with a like-minded friend who's willing to chuckle at the absurdity of it all you shouldn't mind your 87 minutes with this at all - I never once regretted watching it. (Chris Hartley, 4/7/15)

Directed By: John Shepphird.
Written By: Michael Ciminera, Richard Gnolfo.

Starring: Jack Scalia, Jeremy Luke, Joseph Russo, Daniel Booko.